4. As faith includes in it a trusting or relying on Christ, the gospel represents him as an all-sufficient Saviour, _able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him_, Heb. vii. 25. and as faith trusts him for the accomplishment of all the promises, it considers him as having engaged to make them good, inasmuch as _they are yea and amen in him, unto the glory of God_, 2 Cor. i. 20. And therefore, he runs no risque, or is at no uncertainty as to this matter; for Christ’s Mediatorial glory lies at stake. If there be the least failure in the accomplishment of any promise; or any blessing made over to his people in the covenant of grace, which shall not be conferred upon them, he is content to bear the blame for ever: but this is altogether impossible, since he that has undertaken to apply the blessings promised, is faithful and true, as well as the Father that gave them; and this affords them _strong consolation, who are fled for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before them_ in the gospel, Heb. vi. 18. Thus Christ is set forth; and agreeably to this discovery made of him, faith takes up its rest in him, and therein finds safety and peace. V. We shall now consider faith as strong or weak, increasing or declining, with the various marks and signs thereof. As habits of sin are stronger or weaker, the same may be said concerning habits of grace. It is one thing for them to be entirely lost; and another thing to be in a declining state: their strength and vigour may be much abated, and their energy frequently interrupted; nevertheless God will maintain the principle of grace, as we shall endeavour to prove under a following answer.[65] Grace is not always equally strong and lively; the prophet supposes it to be a declining, when he says, _Revive thy work, O Lord, in the midst of the years_, Heb. iii. 2. and our Saviour’s advice to the church at Sardis, implies as much, when he exhorts them _to strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die_, Rev. iii. 2. and when he bids the church at Ephesus to _remember from whence they were fallen, and repent and do their first works_, chap. ii. 5. Some are said, as Abraham, to be _strong in faith, giving glory to God_, Rom. iv. 20. and others are reproved, as our Saviour does his disciples, at some times, when he says, _O ye of little faith_, Matt. vi. 30. As our natural constitution is not always equally healthy and vigorous, nor our condition in the world equally prosperous, the same may be said concerning the habits of grace; sometimes they are strong, and then, as the apostle says concerning his beloved Gaius, 3 John ver. 2. _the soul prospereth_, and we _go from strength to strength_, Psal. lxxxiv. 7. from one degree of grace to another; but, at other times, we are ready to _faint in the day of adversity_, and our _strength is small_, Prov. xxiv. 10. This cannot but be observed by all who are not strangers to themselves, or who take notice of the various frame of spirit, which are